Personal

I am way too excited about what happened recently to come up with a clever title for this blog post and for that I am sorry.

But I am so, so excited about this.

So, I was having a writing meeting with my wonderful author friend Karen, who’s blog you can find here, and is the author-in-charge of Villainous Vacations, an anthology of eleven crime short stories that I’m being published in. (SQUEE!) And while I was there, right in the middle of our meeting, the first shipment of the physical books arrives.

And yes, I’m still freaking out about it.

I’m still having some trouble wrapping my head around the fact that I’m being published in the first place, let alone when I’m staring at the book that is sitting on my coffee table.

And I’ve even got a picture to prove it:

Writing and being published is something I’ve always wanted to do and there’s no way for me to properly express how amazing and strange and wonderful it feels to look at the front cover of a book and see my name instead of someone else’s. And I’m so grateful for the opportunity to be part of this anthology and getting the chance to start proving myself as a writer.

Villainous Vacations, A Collection of Crime Stories

MYSTERY, MURDER AND MAYHEM: Why settle for one nefarious crime when you can have eleven?

If you like spine-chilling tales of felony, villainy and scandal, with shocking twists and thrilling turns, then you will love this new collection of edge-of-your-seat crime stories guaranteed to make you flinch.

You will not be able to put “Villainous Vacations” down. Or fall asleep after reading these gripping stories.

Re-connect with familiar authors and find new favorites in this delicious collection.

In my stories:

Last Christmas: At Christmas time, a young boy goes to investigate his brother’s murder and finds things are more sinister than he thought.

What Could Go Wrong?: It was meant to be a coven holiday, a get away from the hustle and bustle of city life, not a trial to prove not all witches are criminals.

So, I haven’t been feeling very well lately, I hurt my head a little while ago and helping to babysit a cat has put my allergies into red alert. So I’ve been having some difficulty concentrating for long periods of time and it’s making it difficult to read. And, like any writer, I love books and feel very frustrated that I cannot spend some of my free time buried in a novel (especially since I’m borrowing a fantastic book from a friend and have now kept it far longer than the socially acceptable time period for borrowing a book, I’m so sorry…). What’s the solution to this? Audiobooks and Podcasts. In my last year of university I realised that my local library offers a ebook and audiobook online library that rents books for two weeks at a time. So I’ve now listened to Jane Eyre and The Maze Runner, both of which I would recommend for very different reasons. Now, I love reading out loud and listening to people tell me stories, I’m a big fan of hearing stories performed and find audiobooks great. I’m also listening to two regular podcasts, Druidcast and Welcome to Night Vale. Both are free to listen to online and are updated regularly. Druidcast is a talk show like podcast, featuring interviews with artists and musicians, lots of Celtic music, and current events in the Druid community. Night Vale, on the other hand, is a radio show of a fictitious desert town where all sorts of supernatural events occur on a regular basis. If anyone is interested in listening you can find all the episodes of Druidcast here and Welcome to Night Vale here.